RUSSOPHOBIA.
EVERY story may be told two ways. Our readers do not need to be reminded that Russia has long fixed a covetous eye on Con- stantinople; and that a Greek traditional prophecy about the re- storation of the Byzantine empire by a Prince of the name of Constantine first introduced that name into the imperial family of Russia. A Russian Prince who rejoices in the prophetic pa- tronymic is at present on a visit in Constantinople. The news. mongers who lie leaguer there to regale Europe periodically with Oriental tales after the fashion of the Arabian Nights' Entertain- ments, vie with each other in describing with emphasis and at- tributing meaning to all his movements. According to one writer, the Greeks of the Panel are enpues for this scion of the Czarine house. They follow him to St. Sophia ; in their eager love they crowd around him and kiss the walls a the mosque as the Prince of the Greek Church enters it, exclaiming, that it once was their church and will be so again. Even the Sultan, it is said, feels the necessity of being civil to so popular a personage, and admits him to his presence on terms of equality never before conceded to any European.
Another writer, on the contrary, maintains that the Greeks are disgusted with the hauteur brusque of the Russian Constantine; that the rush and pressure at the mosque of St. Sophia were provoked by the rudeness of the Russian attendants, who sought to drive back the Greeks, and his Royal Highness was knocked ' down in the melee and that, so far from the Turkish Govern- ment having treated him with consideration, one of the Prince's boatmen having been beaten by a Turk within an inch of his life, redress had been demanded in vain.
Both versions of the story are probably false: but they are fair specimens of the baseless, unsubstantial rumours of the activity and success of Russia's foreign intrigue, by which a Russophobia is sought to be kept alive. The Russian Cabinet may be a very nest of Thierses or Palmerstons—a convocation of " lea plus Brands brouillons de l'Europe " ; but if John Bull only preserve his equanimity and hold on the even tenour of his way, he has no more to fear from their fussy meddling in the future than in the past.
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